Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Burnt Offerings at the Altar

The first six months of this year were idyllic and enjoyable apart from a couple of little hiccups here and there which are but natural in a life’s progression. Just as I was getting used to the good life came June and Saturn moved forward and trined with Uranus and made a hextant with Jupiter and all the planets conspired together to drag me by the hair through the Tunnel of Horrors at this year’s amusement park. Just twenty days into June and I've had Cat crises! Freak fright! Police pounce! Towering terror….! What next I ask, what next!

Last weekend a couple of friends (QGM and KFP) decided to show me the sights and took me to Malleshwaram, a place I had always associated with quaint Masala Dosa joints and temples. Instead I got to see the gigantic World Trade Centre, a man made lake and thousands of little cubby holes where people are supposed to live. Nature inspires awe but man made monoliths create intimidation. I felt small and insignificant. Then I made the mistake of visiting Mantri Mall soon after and got flattened completely by zillions of consumer goods hurtling towards me at top speed. My eyeballs fell out of their sockets when I saw thousands of shiny women descending escalators each of them laden with hundreds of shopping bags (have you ever watched ants progressing in a row carrying crystals of sugar?). I threw myself into an auto, charged home and collapsed into bed exhausted. The doorbell rang at six b**** thirty am the next morning. I felt my way through to the window to see the gardener come to make up work for a missed day. I mumbled something and grogged back to bed. On the way I saw myself in the mirror, I looked like the picture top left. Badly frightened out of all remaining sleep I went to the kitchen and drank three cups of strong coffee …then I just drew plants and bottles for the rest of the day. Somewhat soothing that. That’s why I have this blog, to cram it with drawings of bottled plants.

Why am I even posting this post? Who are you people even reading this ...this...stuff? My inbuilt blog sitemeter tells me that I have people from Ukraine reading this blog. Ukraine and Finland and Alaska.

I'm saying hello but you already know me so it's not so exciting. Australia not the Ukraine, sorry about the disappointment :)

Those shiny shopping ladies are here too. I loathe shopping but some seem to thrive on it. Was just talking with a friend about the demise of the physical bookshop (they're all starting to close here due to online purchasing of books). Bookshops are the only shops I go into except for shops with food. Recluse, here I come.

Hello I'm Jon. I'm not from Alaska, though, I'm from Chicago. Not having been there, I've always wondered if Alaska exists or if it's just a hallucination brought upon by hypothermia. It must exist, though, if people are visiting your blog from there.

Hi Kylie: The bookstore of my childhood has been razed to give birth to yet another Mega Mall. I read somewhere that Kindle users now exceed book buyers on Amazon but people do still buy books - to decorate their homes! Our browsing and rummaging days are over.

I am starting to wonder if the Ukraine, Finnish and Iran stats are an electronic myth perpetuated by Blogger.

Hi Janet, I'm so glad to meet a long time follower. I'm glad you left a comment because now I am looking through the pictures of the bike trails. They are lovely. So much empty space, no people, lots of trees....:-)

Hello from San Francisco! Been following your blog for a while and love the energy of your work. Even tried to get friends in B'lore to attend your workshop, but I'm sure they ran towards the escalators instead!

If I find myself in Bangalore again, would love to meet and learn some of your brand of charcoal magic!

pallavipsssst: Maybe you need a special drawing to draw out the Ukranians! ;)